裝炸彈既人衝出國際(遠至英國都有報導)
Happy Valley steps up security following poison-dart plot
SECURITY at Happy Valley racecourse in Hong Kong is being stepped up amid worries that a foiled poison-dart sabotage plot before Wednesday's meeting could have been an inside job.
A routine check of the racecourse found 12 sophisticated projectile devices embedded in the turf at the 6f start at the city-centre track.
In a scene reminiscent of a pulp crime novel, the remote-controlled devices were placed evenly across the track where the stalls were to be placed in a plot that has been linked to triad-organised crime syndicates.
It is reported that all but two of the metal tubes – each a foot long and wired together to a remote wireless receiver – contained liquid-filled syringes which would have been propelled by compressed air into the underbelly of the horses.
The devices are undergoing forensic tests to determine whether the contents would affect a horse's performance, while the exact nature of the chemical involved has yet to be disclosed.
An unidentified police source said: “I doubt very much that it was meant to do anything more than just slightly tranquilise the horse. That's my speculation.”
Although the Hong Kong Jockey Club is said to be “baffled” by the motive, various possible explanations have been forwarded from anonymously quoted sources, including triad involvement.
“If you can get the horse to slow down just enough, it looks like a normal race and the favourite may not come in,” said one unidentified police source in local reports.
“It could well be that triads are part of that, especially the gambling which is done outside the Jockey Club's system.”
However, another official claimed a simple gambling-related coup, like stopping the favourite, was an unlikely scenario as the devices seemed to be rigged to fire at every horse in the starting gate rather than any individual animal.
“Once the horses were shot, it would startle the horses and the club would certainly have to cancel the race," he said.
"Based on this theory, we have also ruled out the possibility of the involvement of illegal bookmakers. We are now working on the theory the would-be shooter was either aiming at the force (Hong Kong's anti-triad force) or the club's security." The HKJC is strengthening security controls at the course, with guard and dog patrols.
“We haven't seen anything like this before,” an investigating officer told the South China Morning Post. “We're not even sure how the device functions. It's a very complicated piece of equipment, very sophisticated.”
Commissioner of police Tang King-shing spoke to HKJC chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges on Thursday and assured him the incident was being treated as high priority.
The HKJC is said to be concerned that only someone with a high level of knowledge about the precise position of each starting stall could have placed the device with such accuracy.
Stephen Chandler, the HKJC's executive director of security, told the South China Morning Post: “Itwould be very premature to call this an inside job, but the perpetrator has certainly done his homework very thoroughly, and has demonstrated some painstaking research.”
A reward may be offered for information about the plot. “We do not want to be overreacting to this isolated incident and cut off the public's right to use these facilities at Happy Valley,” added Chandler. “The park is there for the people.
“But are we taking this seriously? Absolutely, yes. What we want to do now is to review thesituation to ensure our security systems are robust enough, but at the same time making sure the track is safe for its primary use, and that's horse racing.”
HKJC track supervisor Jackson Wong Chak-shuen found the deviceon Wednesday.
“I was doing my checking of the track routinely, when I noticed something unusual, buried in the ground," he said.
“After inspecting it briefly, I called my supervisor and he in turn called in security and, eventually, the police as well. We were able to trace leads from the device that led to a battery.”
Engelbrecht-Bresges said the darts could have been fired at all as horses at the same time.
“I've raced all my life and have never seen such a thing,” he said. “
This wasa professional job – it must have taken two or three hours to cut the groove across the track to insert these cylinders. It's unprecedented, it's unheard of.”
